I'm looking for options for tackling dew.

[White Rabbit]

Hi guys.

It's pretty dewy here at the moment so I'm looking at different controllers.

I have the standard manual Kendrick but it doesn't seem to be cutting it.

I was going to get the premium Kendrick but the are being super ceded and who knows when they will be available and Bintel don't have any of the old ones available.

So now I'm looking at the digifire 10 but it only does temp and does not calculate the dew point.

Preferably I love love something I can stick on there leave it on and it kicks in when ever needed.

Are there any alternatives out there or are Kendrick the only name in dew controllers.

Thanks

[Marios]

hi

I got the thousand oak heater and straps and never looked back. Get a cheap weather station that has the extra sensor and place it under the heating strap. The trick is to keep the scope heated 10c higher than the ambient temp and you wont get dew forming.



http://agenaastro.com/thousand-oaks-4-channel-dew-heater-controller-ddhc.html

[pdalek]

There is the DewBuster
http://www.dewbuster.com/index.html

I now use a Thousand Oaks - got cheap - which is a slow pwm type and is OK. Previously used lab power supply.

Your scope is the best dew point sensor. The best commercial sensors use a cyclically heated-cooled mirror to detect dew. None will track true conditions better than a big piece of glass exposed to the sky.

A "set X degrees above ambient" type is reliable. For set and forget operation in an observatory, use a plug-in mains timeclock to switch power supply on at night. Avoids cooking scope on hot summer days.

[sn1987a]

and for backup....:D

[White Rabbit]

Thanks guys.

I ended up with the Kendrick Digifire 10 as the premium one has been discontinued due to a newer model coming out shortly.

It has a temp sensor on it so it will keep the optics above ambient, seems to do the job quite well so far.

Thanks

[SkyViking]

Another vote for DewBuster from me, it's very elegant solution and has so far eliminated all dew from my optics, without affecting image quality. You can read a brief account of what I did here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=117390